


Failure to Communicate

by empires



Category: Ookiku Furikabutte | Big Windup!
Genre: Boys In Love, M/M, gentle exploration of feelings, h-stuff, tween angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-15
Updated: 2016-05-15
Packaged: 2018-06-08 15:52:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6861658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/empires/pseuds/empires
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mihashi is not Kanou's boyfriend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Failure to Communicate

It took a few minutes for the sound of his name to fully register, a pitcher is known for his focus afterall, but Kanou finally managed to tear his eyes away from the cell phone. It was like surfacing from the bottom of a swimming pool, the weight, the coolness, and the momentary displacement felt between air and water. He blinked several times, looked up to find Hatake shifting on his feet, left to right.

“Kanou?”

Kanou read the message one last time before answering. “Yes?”

He glanced back up to find Hatake looking away. Kanou took the silence in stride, quickly sending back his reply.

Hatake finally took a deep breath, squared his shoulders and blurted, “Are you feeling okay? We were wondering. I mean, I was wondering.”

Kanou blinked again. His phone blinked back at him and he tapped out another message. The response was equally fast. He answered back.

“So,” Hatake ground out after another exchange. “Are you?”

“Am I what?”

Hatake flushed. “Feeling okay?”

“Yes,” Kanou answered slowly. He looked over Hatake's shoulder and noticed a couple of his teammates' eyes darting away.

“Are you sure?”

“I feel fine.” Kanou said. “Why?”

“It's just.” Hatake leaned in closer. “You're smiling all the time.”

Kanou reached up and touched his cheek. It seemed he was smiling.

“And sometimes you act like you don't hear us,” Hatake continued. “You're always texting and it's like you don't want to be around us. Did we do something?”

The cellphone buzzed to life again and Kanou thumbed the message open without thinking.

“Like that!” Hatake wailed, pointing to Kanou's brightening smile.

“Shu-chan, I am glad that I will be able to see you next weekend.” Oda's voice trailed off as Kanou snapped his phone shut. “Shu-chan?”

“Shu-chan?” echoed around the classroom. The other team members could no longer pretend that they weren't listening.

“You have a girlfriend, Kanou?” Yoshi popped up beside him, beaming.

"Oh good." Hatake collapsed into a chair, relieved. “I thought it was something serious.”

“I do not have a girlfriend.” Kanou said voice flat.

“Is she pretty?”

“Is your girlfriend nice?”

“I do not have a girlfriend.”

“You can tell us, you know? Don’t you want to share with the team?”

“I do not have a girlfriend,” said Kanou, repeating the words over and over again.

Unfortunately, no one bothered to hear them. They crowded around his desk and asked questions. The talk quickly became embarrassing to Kanou, who had nothing to be embarrassed about.

“Who is it?” Miyagawa asked, eyebrows wiggling. “Is it the girl in 2B, the one with the dark hair and the.” He looked around before gesturing, crude rounding movements around his chest.

“Ah. She comes to the games all the time,” someone added.

“No, no. It has to be someone like Tonoko-chan,” Yoshi said. He spoke her name softly, in the tone reserved for the prettiest girls whose smile, and short skirts, send pulses racing. “2B girl is way too... outgoing for Kanou, right?”

“Ne, Shu-chan, is it Tonoko-chan?

Tonoko turned around in her seat, eyes wide. “No, no!” she exclaimed, dropping her phone on the desk. But her eyes raked over Kanou, accessing. The girls in the classroom looked on, giggling behind their hands.

Absolutely nothing to be embarrassed about. He reminded himself several times.

Self-study had never been his favorite period even though Oda would sneak down to his hall during his own study period from time to time. This day cinched its position as last place in his mind. Kanou sunk down in his chair and suffered through ten more minutes of poking and prodding.

The lunch bell rung, finally, and everyone forgot Kanou's torment, even Hatake who seemed to have a slight spring in his step as he headed out the door, shouting that he'd save Kanou a seat at the tables beneath the oak trees. A temporary measure, Kanou sighed, knowing the subject would be brought up again the moment he sat down with the rest of Mihoshi's baseball team.

He stood up, shoving his phone in his pocket for safekeeping and grabbed his lunch. Oda leaned against the doorway and loosened his necktie. Kanou shook his head, wondering how being cool all the time would feel.

“So you don't have a girlfriend.”

“No. At least you listened to me.” Kanou grumbled.

They left the room together, Oda's arm slung around his neck. The hallways were emptied. Voices chattered up from the stairwells, breezed in from outside on the cooling autumn air. Kanou listened to their footsteps, thought about the exhibition game coming up.

“I would understand, you know,” Oda broke the silence. “You can tell me.”

“Tell you what?” Kanou looked up to find Oda's brow furrowed, troubled. “What is wrong with everyone today?”

Oda stopped, forcing Kanou to do the same. He gazed down at Kanou, eyes so serious, a little sad. “Mihashi. If you two are,” he raised a pinky.

Kanou's jaw dropped. “Are you serious?

“It's okay. I get it. You too are,” Oda waved his hand, pinky still extended. “He calls you Shu-chan. No one else does.”

It was the disappointment more so than the solemn understanding that broke Kanou's cool. Yoshi, Miyagawa, Kobayashi, he could understand, they were obsessed with girls. Their lack of girlfriend and their various attempts at fixing this problem, and everyone else's, was expected. But Oda, who was so cool and never accepted anyone's confessions no matter how many chocolates he received, was Kanou's friend. They spent so much time together, on the field and after class, Oda should know better.

He shoved Oda away from him, so suddenly angry, so fiercely exasperated, he wanted to throw something. At Oda. He wasn't even sure where it came from, only knew that Oda dared ask him something like that about Mihashi.

“Don't be angry. I just want you know that I'm. I'm okay with the idea. Of you. Of two guys,” Oda barreled on, fanning the flames. “You with another guy is. It’s not weird. I don't want you to think you couldn't talk to me about stuff like that. Girlfriends or boyfriends.”

Kanou turned on his heel and stalked off, unable to form words to battle Oda's sincerity. He rounded the corner, ignoring Oda calling him back, certain he wasn't smiling at all.

* * *

  
Practices tended to be lighter at the end of the school week, a little less intense with more focus on fundamentals. They always ended the final hour in the batting cages, facing off against the machines, challenging each other to be consistent, to hit the fastest pitch, the most homeruns.

Kanou usually enjoyed batting practice but today found it sorely lacking in fun. He had clearly been affected by the days events, anger following him to lunch, to the classroom, and into the batter's box. He hacked at the balls, his swing tight and rushed. He popped up dozens of times, pulled fouls instead of the line drives he perfected.

The rest of Mioshi stayed out of his way when he exited the batting cage, swinging the door shut harder than usual. His coaches didn't say anything to him, just gave him a curious eye and wished him better luck tomorrow.

It was awful.

He rushed into the locker rooms for a quick shower before heading home. He avoided conversation with the other first years, rushing into the first open stall, determined not to think of anything at all. It didn't work. He found himself thinking about Oda and his stupid attempts at whatever he was attempting. Accusing Kanou of being h with his childhood friend. Oda hadn't even seemed embarrassed.

The surety in which Oda carried himself gave him plenty of fans devoted to his coolness. He certainly hadn't been bothered by Kanou's anger. Practice had been a breeze for Oda, not that Kanou had watched. He caught everything on the field, jogged with his head high, scarcely out of breath during drills. In the cages he hit every pitch cleanly. The balls pinged off the aluminum, hitting the net at smooth angles that would have carried anywhere if on the field, sailing quick down the first base line, dropping in the gap between center and second, a homerun over third.

After the game with Nishiura he was sure Oda understood about Mihashi. Everyone at Mihoshi suffered during the final year of junior high, but Mihashi bore the brunt of the team's frustration and hurt. Yet Mihashi was a good pitcher, one with potential. He deserved to continue playing, to go forward and discover his own strength. It had felt good to see his friend on the mound, even better to reconnect with him. Oda helped Kanou accomplish that during the game and so much more. Oda had listened, played hard when Kanou asked, reminded the team the fundamental aspect respect played in the game, lifting a simple practice match into a heart-pounding memory. He had grasped everything else so quickly.

That Oda was so wrong about this almost made Kanou think he was wrong about Oda as well.

So what if he and Mihashi messaged each other? He messaged Oda twice as much. So what if he and Mihashi saw each other every couple of weeks? He and Oda spent the night with each other almost every week. As if he would ever like Mihashi, as if he would ever want Mihashi like, like that.

If Kanou was being unflinchingly honest with himself, he'd admit he wasn't entirely sure what his type was, but he knew it wasn't Mihashi. Definitely not Mihashi. He wanted someone much more sure of themselves. Pretty too, Kanou's mind groped about for someone suitable, like Namie Amuro, fuller lips like Crystal Kay. Taller, definitely taller, slim and strong with a lazy smile and would feel heavy when pressed against Kanou’s cheek, his neck, his lips, good hands and a firm grip.

Kanou turned the hot water off and stood under the cold stream for few moments.

He dried off and dressed in the corner of the locker room, away from the other stragglers. Oda fell into step beside him as he exited, backpack and overnight bag snug on his back. They walked to the bus stop in silence. It didn't matter if Oda was staying the night at his house, Kanou decided not to speak to Oda until he apologized.

The resolution lasted six minutes, the time it took for Oda to call his goodbyes to their other classmates leaving from after school practice. He was all waves and wide smiles and Kanou found himself angry all over again.

“Are you not going to apologize?” Kanou asked, slinging his bag to the ground. “You're going to pretend you didn't just look down on me and my friend?”

Oda sat on the bench. “I'm not looking down on anyone, especially not you Kanou,” he said, carefully. “Or Mihashi.”

“Then where did this thing with Mihashi come from?” Kanou asked. “One minute you guys are grilling me about Iragashi's cup size and then you're saying I want to do h-stuff with my best friend.”

Oda looked away. “He called you Shu-chan in that message,” he said, as if that meant anything. “And Hatake was right. You really are smiling all the time.”

“That's enough for you to think I have a boyfriend? That Mihashi and I are boyfriends?” Kanou shook his head. “How does that even make sense?”

“Look, I'm trying to be a good friend, okay,” Oda said suddenly. His eyes were focused on the people walking across the street. “I didn't want you to think you couldn't tell me about stuff like that. You can trust me. I could even help you.”

“Help me?” Kanou turned to him, wide eyed. “How can you help me? You don't have a girlfriend either. Do you even date?”

Oda shrugged. “The way you look at him is different than the way you look at anyone else,” he said, softly. “It's like no one else is around when you concentrate on Mihashi. I thought that meant you guys were close. Closer than just friends.”

Kanou sighed, wondering what could make Oda get everything so wrong. “Mihashi and me, we're not like that, okay. I've known Mihashi since forever but you and I are close now too. Mihashi is Mihashi and Oda is Oda,” he said, nodding firmly, explaining everything in those few words.

An arm landed across Kanou's shoulder, dragging him close. Oda released a slow breath, “Really?”

“Yes,” Kanou frowned as he felt the tension leaving Oda's body. “So no more of this, okay. I don't have a girlfriend and I don't have a boyfriend and if I did it would not Mihashi.”

“I guess I should apologize now.”

“Yes,” Kanou nearly shouted.

“Mm,” Oda agreed. He was silent a moment, then tilted his head to rest against Kanou. “You don’t have a girlfriend and you don’t have a boyfriend. Do you have someone you like?” he asked, teasing.

“I hate you,” Kanou muttered, squirming a little.

“Do you?” Oda pressed. "Like someone?"

“Not right now, no.” Kanou looked up to find Oda's eyes on him, steady and sure. It was as if he stood at the plate, steady, relaxed, bat nestled in his perfect grip, waiting for Kanou’s pitch. “But I will let you know when I figure it out.”


End file.
